The Beginning After The End novel Chapter 317

Chapter 317

The journey to Eidelholm passed quickly, though it took nearly two full days .

We traveled in silence, mostly . Tessia and Albold were forced to slow their pace, guiding the rest of us carefully through the outskirts of Elshire . Hornfels and Skarn had it the hardest; they weren’t woodsmen, and had spent very little time above ground . They hated the mists as much as I hated stepping in puddles of mud...which happened often .

Boo and Grawder, on the other hand, seemed completely at home . We let them move at their own pace, sometimes rushing ahead, charging through the forest like a couple of wild animals, and other times lingering behind to dig in the soft soil or sniff after some mana beast trail . I didn’t worry about them, though . I knew that Boo would always be able to find his way back to me .

Though we stayed cautious, Tessia and Albold weren’t worried the Alacryans would find us in the forest . They expected that we would already be at Eidelholm before the prisoner caravan was reported as missing, and the Alacryans couldn’t navigate Elshire well enough to have effective patrols .

When we did actually talk, it was largely to discuss optimal paths we should take to scout out the area without being discovered . While neither Albold nor Tessia had a map, both knew the area well enough for us to have a good sense of what to expect by the time we reached the elven village .

Signs of the Alacryans were all over the place before we got our first look at Eidelholm .

The first was the corpse of an elven man lying face down at the base of a dying tree . A hole the size of an apple had been burned completely through him and the tree both .

I kept my gaze fixed on the sight, despite wanting to spin away and puke . This was something I had to get used to .

Albold leaned over the corpse, his usual cheery expression nowhere to be found . “He was most likely trying to flee . ”

Agreeing in silence, we didn’t linger to investigate more closely .

We slowed our pace as we got closer to the village, moving carefully in case we ran into Alacryans in the woods . As we approached, the sound of axes thudding into trees grew louder and louder .

Tessia held up a closed fist, and we all went still and tense . She leaned toward me and pointed ahead . The mists had cleared, but the trees were still dense enough to limit my line of sight .

Using mana, I enhanced my vision to try and see what Tessia was pointing at . There was no movement, no enemy that I could see . Just trees, with sunlight shining on brown earth beyond .

Then it snapped into place . Where the sun shone, the forest simply ended . We crept forward again until we were just at the edge of the treeline . The Alacryans had cut down all of the trees around Eidelholm, an uncountable number of trees . A large field of deforested land lay between us and a sad, gray little town .

I was sure the elven village must have been really pretty, once upon a time . Now the twisted timbers and boughs that made up the structure of the buildings seemed withered and dead, and the green roofs had turned brown like fallen leaves .

I could see where a lot of the houses around the edge of the town had burned down . A few square buildings, minimal in design, had been built in their place, and a handful of Alacryan men and women could be seen going about their day, doing normal, ordinary things like hauling buckets of water or armloads of wood .

Tessia stood to my left . The set of her jaw and the angle of her body made her look like a predator . She was so tense I could practically see her quivering, like a silver jaguar waiting for its prey .

I wasn’t the only one who noticed .

“Let’s find someplace with some shelter so we can wait for the cover of night,” Curtis said, stepping up beside Tessia .

“No,” Tessia said simply . “We need to get a good look at the village in the light . Albold, you and Curtis make a circuit to the west . Ellie and I will go east . Kathyln, Skarn, and Hornfels, you three take the mana beasts and find someplace to shelter, somewhere we can use as a base of operations . ”

Curtis must have noticed the looks of confusion all around . “I’ll be able to find Grawder when the four of us meet back up after our circuit,” he explained . “We always know where the other is . ”

Skarn spit into the dirt . “I can’t wait to be done with this hiking nonsense . C’mon you great brutes, you’re with us . ” This last was directed at Grawder and Boo, who looked hesitantly toward Curtis and me .

“I’ll be back soon, Grawder,” Curtis said, smiling warmly at his world lion bond .

I ran a hand through Boo’s fur, then scratched him under his chin . He looked at me in a way that said he’d rather be by my side . Smiling, I booped his nose . “You stay with Grawder, silly . We’ll be right back . ”

Curtis gave his sister a hug, and over his shoulder she shot me an embarrassed look, forcing me to turn away to hide my grin .

To the dwarves, Tessia said, “Thank you for being here, friends . The elven people owe you a great debt . ”

Skarn simply grunted, but Hornfels gave Tessia the slightest bow . “We’re all in this fight together now . It’s Skarn’s and my hope that, some day, we’ll be able to free our own kin from the poisonous ideas of the late king and queen Greysunders . Until such a time, though, we’ll deliver our boots to Alacryan asses wherever we can find them . ”

Tessia returned the bow, then turned her turquoise eyes on me . “Ready, partner?”

Partner...

It was strange, being referred to like that by her . We’d come so far together since that first tense exchange in the underground town after Arthur disappeared . Past me likely would’ve killed present me for thinking this, but I sort of looked up to Tessia now . She was also one of the few people that treated me...as me . And Tessia had been the one to push for me to be involved, for me to have the chance to help our people .

With a deep breath, I reached for the feeling deep in my core and manifested the first phase of my beast will . “Yeah, I’m ready . ”

With a backwards glance at Boo, who stood up on his hind legs and waved one big paw, looking as sad as I’d ever seen him, I set off after Tessia .

She led us east, always keeping under the cover of the trees . We moved slowly . Tessia scouted the village while I kept a lookout for any threats in the forest, especially Alacryan soldiers .

We hadn’t been moving for more than ten minutes when I stopped Tessia after catching a whiff of something familiar . We both fell flat on our stomachs, using the undergrowth to hide as best we could while I searched for the source of the scent .

“There,” I mouthed, pointing west .

A young elven woman came around a large tree less than twenty feet away . She was carrying a wicker basket in the crook of one arm . Her blonde hair had been cut short, exposing red marks and bruising across the side and back of her neck . She walked with a slight limp .

I was surprised to see that she wasn’t chained or manacled in any way . There are probably other, less obvious ways to bind someone, I thought, my mind going to Tessia’s parents, the late king and queen of the elves . The Alacryans are good at things like that .

Distant shouting and the splintering crash of a falling tree made the girl stop . She stared sadly in the direction of the noise for a moment, then moved on .

Tessia took a step toward the elven girl but stopped herself . It looked like we both wanted to help her, but it wasn’t the right time . Tessia and I waited until the limping elf had moved off, leaving the forest and stepping into the light, where she jogged awkwardly back toward the village .

After that we crept along even more cautiously, our eyes mostly on the village, but my enhanced hearing and smell was trained on the forest, cautious of anything approaching . We’d gone a little more than halfway around the village before I had to withdraw my beast will to rest .

Shortly afterward, Tessia stiffened, then stabbed her thumb down to signal us to drop . We both dove behind a large berry bush .

I couldn’t see anything, so I watched Tessia’s face carefully in case I needed to conjure an arrow in an instant, but after several long seconds she relaxed and stood up . Hesitantly, I followed her lead, my bow at the ready .

Nearby, Albold stepped out from between two trees where he was waiting for us alongside Curtis, and I let out a relieved breath .

“Things seem quiet on this side,” Tessia said softly, waving them over . “No sign of where they’re keeping the prisoners yet . You?”

Albold nodded, face tense . “Makeshift cages—little more than kennels—have been constructed at the edge of town . There are a couple hundred prisoners at least . I counted thirteen guards . ”

“But only three mages,” Curtis added . “The rest were just normal soldiers—unadorned, they call them . ”

Tessia tugged thoughtfully at a loose lock of her hair . “Okay, you two complete your circuit, put a second set of eyes on this side of the village . Ellie and I will take a look at the prisoners ourselves . ”

“There is a large logging party working on that side of town, too . We had to go well out into the forest to avoid them,” Albold noted .

Tessia nodded in understanding, we said our farewells, then we split up again .

As we rounded the far side of the village, the consistent thudding of axes into wood grew louder, and, as Albold had said, we found a group of men and women working to fell, cut, and carry away lumber . The first thing I noticed was that all the workers were Alacryans . In fact, there were no elves assisting with the logging at all .

We were crouched behind a naturally fallen tree a couple hundred feet from the nearest Alacryan, watching them work .

“Even under threat of death, my people wouldn’t cut down the trees,” Tessia whispered, answering my unasked question .

Without another word, she took off deeper into the forest, giving the workers a wide berth . It didn’t take us long after that to find the roughly built cages were housing elves like animals ready to be butchered .

It was hard to believe anyone could survive long in such awful conditions . The elves were nearly all standing, their bodies pressed against one another . They had just enough room for a few to lay down at once in the cramped cages . The elves looked pale and thin, their dirty skin stretched too tightly across their faces, giving them a ghastly, skeletal look .

The cages were made of wood, but were little more than roughly milled frames connected by narrow planks . I wondered for a moment why the elves didn’t try to break out, but then I realized that they were probably so tired and weak that they didn’t even have the strength to break the wooden slats, much less escape from the guards .

My eyes caught on an elven man who was pressed up against the side of one of the cages . He was slumped down unnaturally, his eyes open but glazed . I couldn’t bear to continue looking at the sight of his body left to rot next to his own family .

Animals, I thought angrily . My fingers trembled, itching to send mana arrows flying at the guards right then and there .

The voice in the back of my mind that sounded like Arthur’s told me I was thinking like a child . It reminded me that we were just here as scouts . Looking at these prisoners, though, I doubted that they would last much longer .

Two of the guards were playing some kind of board game, sitting at a makeshift table made of a stump . I closed my eyes and activated my beast will so I could hear what they were saying .

“—tired of the stink . Babysitting a bunch of unwashed, half-dead elves wasn’t what I had in mind when they told us we’d be taking this place over, you know?”

“Tell me about it . And with that Bilal creeping around, glaring down at us all the time . He’s even worse than Jagrette, and she was awful . Are you going to take your move or what?”

“I’m thinking, I’m thinking . But yeah, you’re right . I’m not sure why we need a damned retainer for this post, anyway . My kid sister could guard these elves all by herself . It’s those Milviews, I’m sure . Cowards . How they ever earned highblood status, I’ll—”

But I lost track of the conversation for a moment as my mind buzzed . Jagrette, where have I heard of that name before?

I turned to Tessia to ask her, but she held up a hand .

Not a second passed before a chill ran down my spine, my own bestial senses picking up the deathly aura that smelled even worse than the rotting corpses nearby .

A man stepped from between two of the buildings, approaching the guards . He looked like a walking skeleton . His face was pale and puffy, his eyes so sunken and dark that they looked like empty holes . Flat, greenish hair like dead seagrass clung to his forehead and cheeks . He was tall and awkwardly thin with sharp, spiderish limbs that his sheer black mage’s robes highlighted .